Like most ladies of a certain age, (wink, wink) Karen Ingalls of Tavares wasn’t happy when she started gaining weight around her middle in 2008.

Ladies especially don’t like it when they’ve been skinny most of their lives, but Ingalls figured her new shape came from aging. So, at 67, Ingalls started exercising and eating less. Result: Her dress size creeped from a 6 to an 8 and was headed for a 10 when she went to her gynecologist for a checkup.

The doctor couldn’t examine her because of intense abdominal pain, and Ingalls, who was a snowbird from Minnesota then, told her husband they needed to go home — something was very wrong.

Within days, Ingalls learned she had a tumor the size of a honeydew melon, the result of ovarian cancer, one of the sneakiest forms of that horrible, insidious disease.

Ovarian is a cancer that invades the female body quietly, often with few symptoms. Depending on which of the 40 types of cancer cells the patient has, survival is often a struggle and not a successful one.

“I was always a little suspicious that my health nemesis wold be cancer, and I always thought I’d take a natural cure,” Ingalls said.

But when doctors told her that she needed chemotherapy and surgery — the cancer had invaded her colon — the retired registered nurse dropped the nontraditional plan for a cure.

“I said, ‘How soon can we start?’” she said.

She was given a 50 percent chance of living five years.

Today, Ingalls is celebrating her 10th anniversary of outliving ovarian cancer by starring in a public service announcement, “Not on My Watch,” featuring women of varying ages who also are beating ovarian cancer. The announcement was directed by actress Cobie Smulders from “How I Met Your Mother” and “Avengers.”

Smulders, diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 25, teamed with the cancer-focused pharmaceutical company Tesaro to raise awareness of this lesser-known but powerful cancer and to let women know that there are medicines and options. The public service announcement can be viewed at notonmywatch.com. For every share on social media, Tesaro is donating $5 to ovarian cancer patient support organizations. Across the U.S. about 222,000 women are battling the disease.

One of the nastiest attributes of ovarian cancer is that it simply doesn’t give up. Nearly 85 percent of women diagnosed with it will have a recurrence, and in the past, the protocol has been to watch-and-wait until it does. That’s not a terrific way to live — cancer on your shoulder plotting its return.

Part of the public service announcement is to let women know that new drugs have been developed — yes, Tesaro makes one of them — as maintenance therapies to slow the recurrence of the cancer. Ingalls is taking one right now and will continue to do so for as long as she lives.

She has had recurrences of the disease since 2008 — one in 2014 and a second in 2015. It first showed up in a tricky area of the colon, and she underwent a second round of chemotherapy to get rid of it.

Six months later, it was back with a vengeance. This time, it had to be surgery.

“I don’t care if I end up with a colostomy bag,” Ingalls said she told doctors. “I don’t care what you have to do, just do it.”

Ingalls’ most recent surgery was March 2017, and she began taking a maintenance drug. Ingalls penned a blog about her experiences, and later, a book called “Outshine: An Ovarian Cancer Memoir.” It’s available on Amazon, and proceeds go to ovarian cancer charities.

Ingalls said Tesaro learned of her attempt to spread the word about the disease and asked her to participate in the public service announcement.

“Those of us that have recurred, we don’t have to sit and wait and wonder when the other shoe is going to drop. We have some resources. We have maintenance medicine that hopefully will extend my life.